News & Updates

Positive parenting practices, like praising, noticing, and encouraging children’s behavior, may help reduce the faster rate of biological aging seen in children under adverse conditions. Such positive parenting practices may counter the effects of children’s hardships, improving their long-term physical and psychological health.

Compared to formula fed infants, extremely preterm infants fed donated human milk had half the rate of necrotizing enterocolitis, a life threatening condition of the intestines. There were no differences in neurological development between those fed donor milk and those fed formula.

Preterm infants born to women who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 had roughly the same levels of antibodies to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 as term infants born to vaccinated women, allaying concerns that fewer antibodies might pass to preterm infants.

A step monitoring program for stroke survivors is more effective at spurring long-term physical activity than the traditional therapy of high-intensity walking. The step program appears to reduce the chances that stroke survivors will become sedentary after their therapy is complete, which increases the risk for future strokes.

Sepsis screening tools designed to account for the physiological changes that may occur during pregnancy perform best from 20 weeks of pregnancy through 3 days postpartum, research suggests. In early pregnancy and later in the postpartum period, tools based on general sepsis screening criteria may more accurately predict which patients are at high risk for maternal sepsis, a leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths.

An atlas of the placenta developed by NIH researchers offers insight on the communication that occurs between maternal and fetal cells during labor and delivery.

Researchers linked malformations in stillborn infants to copy number variants—lengths of DNA in which hereditary material is duplicated or deleted. What they learned could lead provide information helpful to parents and for pregnancy care.

Children with enlarged perivascular spaces—fluid-filled cavities surrounding the brain’s small blood vessels—had a higher risk for developing autism spectrum disorder and later sleep problems. Brain scans to detect the enlargement could be helpful for obtaining an earlier diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders.

A questionnaire detecting strong emotional responses to traumatic births could help identify new mothers at risk for developing childbirth-related post-traumatic stress disorder. It may lead to faster diagnosis—and treatment—of post traumatic stress disorder in new mothers.

Pregnant women who tested positive for cannabis use were at 27% higher risk for conditions related to poor placental function—including hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, stillbirth, and growth restriction relative to gestational age—than pregnant women who tested negative.

In 2023, NICHD continued its commitment to research to understand human development, improve reproductive health, promote women’s health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all. Highlights include steps toward reducing the global burden of maternal sepsis and establishing a standard treatment for opioid-exposed newborns.

By late 2022, widespread COVID-19 vaccination of pregnant women likely halted a spike in the preterm birth rate that began at the start of the pandemic, suggests a new study. The findings underscore the need for pregnant women to keep current on COVID-19 vaccination.

Zebrafish are models for studying early development. Scientists at NICHD published an atlas of early zebrafish development that can serve as resource for other researchers who study development or human conditions and diseases.

As we ring in 2024, we’d like to take a brief look back on our accomplishments during 2023. These activities illustrate the institute’s continued commitment to research and training in its mission areas.

Depression in early and mid-pregnancy seems to age the placenta more rapidly than not experiencing depression during pregnancy. Premature placental aging could account for higher rates of low birth weight, preterm birth, blood pressure disorders, diabetes, and other complications linked to depression in pregnancy, underscoring the need to diagnose and treat depression in pregnant women.

Researchers developed a new method of evaluating blood from pregnant women to identify anomalies in the genes of fetuses. The new approach is more sensitive than current tests, which screen only for chromosome-level variants, such as an extra chromosome, and a small number of fetal genetic variants. It is also less invasive than current methods, which often involve inserting a needle into the uterus to retrieve fetal cells for analysis.

Endometriosis affects an estimated 10% of women, can cause severe pain and infertility, and typically has long delays in diagnosis. NICHD is accelerating efforts to definitively diagnose, prevent, and treat this chronic disease.

Preterm infants who underwent several painful medical procedures in early life may be at high risk for autism spectrum disorders and lower motor and language scores at 18 months of age, suggesting that repeated exposure to pain may affect early brain development. The findings underscore the need to develop more effective pain management procedures for preterm infants.

For the 35th observance of World AIDS Day, NICHD reflects on recent progress in HIV/AIDS research to optimize outcomes for infants and children, tailor care for adolescents and young adults, promote reproductive health, and support pregnancy and parenthood.

The Division of Intramural Research provides fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems through basic, clinical, and population-based research.